Birthday

(SPECIAL REPORT: We interrupt this mediocre blog post to bring you
this update. I have lost my phone. And by lost, I mean I
accidentally washed it. With my pants. On 'heavy duty' setting.
Yes.
SO, if you are one of those people who I've called on a cell phone,
and I'm unlikely to remember your number because I met you in graduate
school or you moved sometime in the last 3 years or you birthday was
after 1975...SEND ME YOUR NUMBER. I totally forgot it.)

Well, I'm officially 29 years old now. I'd be a lot more terrified of
that if I was still 25, if that makes any sense, but as it is, I'm
just exhausted about the world.

The job is going well, but the 3 hour a day drive is really killing my
non-work productivity. Well, that, and the fact that I had to read
the entire Harry Potter series. Thank god that's over, or else I
might have destroyed all the personal relationships in my life.

Apparently...wait...

As I was writing this (in the middle of the day cuz I'm done with
almost all my work), I was handed a copy of Unionid Mussels of Kansas.
This is the coolest thing anyone has given me in at least 4 hours.
The last two days HAVE been kind of a "Getting cool stuff" festival,
however. Yesterday my loving wife purchased me the entire 27 disc
collection of available Alton Brown episodes, then my parents got me a
new knife set (drool) and Alton Brown's award-winning book "I'm just
here for the food." Then when I got to work this morning I got a
state-issued credit-card to buy gas.

I think the mussel guide (did I mention it is illustrated?) falls
above the credit card but below the cooking stuff.

We also moved into the house we're renting on Saturday. I'd be lying
if I said I was anything but dismayed by the place. It just makes me
mad, mostly at myself, but a little bit mad at the cruel fate that has
forced us into this situation. Screw you Fate!

The kitchen is pitifully small, with an ancient electric stove. The
fridge is small, there's no dishwasher. The bathroom is A) moldy and
B) unbelievably ugly. I shouldn't think about it. After we got all
our stuff in there it looked a lot nicer. The sheer fact that I do
not want to move again could mean that we stay there for awhile, but
this is definitely the ugliest, worst place we've ever lived.

Once we're in Pratt, or at least once I quit having to drive 3 hours a
day, I'll be more communicative.

Good morning Saturday

What I did this week:

1. Drove to Topeka and sat in on a committee that is deciding what to do about reservoirs and sediment and available water in KS for the next 50-70 years. And by "sat in" I mean "participated". I ended up meeting a ton of interesting people, but it was a long meeting.

2. Staying in Lawrence and got to see my...uh...niece. Wow, I just realized my sister's baby is my niece. That's weird, but I guess not really. Anyway, she's 3 weeks old but still very tiny.

3. Went to Kansas City and looked at Redbelly Snake habitat. Which consists of oak-hickory forest with steep gradients. In 105 degree heat. That was a hot, sweaty, exhausting experience, but a lot of fun.

4. Went to see a play starring a college friend.

5. Read Harry Potter 4.

6. That's probably enough.

I'm thinking it would be really cool to record notes and a review of each of the restaurants I visit while on this job (only visiting local stuff) and call it "Threatened and Endangered Food."
I think that'd be fun.

Today it is back to the birthing class. Yay. After last week I've been telling people that if I saw that video in November...well...I wouldn't be pregnant.

What's been happening?

I almost forgot my password to this blog. Dang it has been awhile. Let's get right to it:

- First of all, my good friend K revealed himself to be 'openly hostile' by sending me a link to the game tower defense. I'm going to warn you that clicking on that link is like clicking on crack cocaine. I'm serious. I didn't look up from my computer screen for three days, and that was only because a catastrophic flood inundated the biological station, forcing the loss of internet, phones and septic systems (ew!).

- About that flooding: Lake Texoma, she is over her banks! I may not be teaching a class on Invasive species this summer after all, since the profs are supposed to arrive in 17 days and right now the road to the station is flooded over in 4 places, the phone and internet is out, the septic systems are backed up, and there's a pretty good chance one of the dorms is going to be flooded out momentarily. I'm conflicted about this. Overall it is a bad thing. The station needs the money from such a class, I need the money (and experience), and I've spent a ton of time and effort getting everything ready.
On the other hand, I am extremely busy and I would love to not leave my very pregnant wife for two weeks. I'm also not sure what exactly I'm going to do if the floodwaters are still high, as a big part of my plan revolved around surveying boaters...and all the boat ramps have been under water for the last month.

- Job stuff: Did anyone not get the memo about my new job? I'm officially leaving academia after about ~10 years of collegiate life. Regrets? Yeah, a few. On the whole I think I've had a good run at attending and working at colleges, but I wish this last had gone a lot better. The job I left was, without a doubt, one of the most depressing times I've had since I left high school. This, fortunately, was in sharp contrast to my wife's experience working at the same place (in a very different capacity), so there's been some weird feelings about leaving.
Basically, I felt as if I was living in a dark tunnel for the last 6 months and seriously debated seeking professional assistance while the wife was enjoying her job, her co-workers, and the great joy of not having to drive to work.
The new job is in state government. I really have no idea what to expect.

- Looking for a house stuff: So I'm living in my parent's basement. This is not good times. Don't get me wrong, the basement is wonderful. There's a lake out the back where I can go fishing, there's a cute dog that is extremely happy to see us, and there's a really, really big TV (talk about a culture shock after 8 months of no cable).
But we need to get our own place. The problem is there is literally nothing available to rent that is remotely affordable. There was a tornado and over a thousand people were displaced into the area we're moving. The rentor's in the area have apparently responded by raising the rent to astronomical levels. A 2 br, 1 ba, 800 square foot house costs $800 a month! The house is ugly, doesn't come with any appliances, and the kitchen is a piece of shit. $800 a month. And this is in a tiny little town in Kansas. We could buy the house with no money down, and pay less than 500 a month on the mortgage. Annoying.
We will probably end up buying something.

- Harry Potter: So as some of you know, I have not read the Harry Potter books, and I had only seen the first Harry Potter movie. I've been generally dismissive of the entire idea, believing it to be A) annoying and B) a cheap version of Lord of the Rings. However, anyone who continued listening past those initial reasons would have heard me also say that I suspected I would love the books and didn't want to get involved until they were all out.
Particularly tuned in readers may be recalling that the final book in the series hits bookstores this month.
I'm sure we can all see where this is going. On Sunday we watched all 4 of the movies available to rent, and today we saw the latest movie (Order of the Phoenix). I read the first book in 3 and a half hours on Monday, and the second over a slightly longer period on Tuesday. I've held off on buying another book today.
Let's sum this up: These movies are unprecedented. There has never been anything like a 5-part movie that remained cohesive. Unless you want to count TV shows (in which case Firefly looks beautiful), the movies alone are unique. I have no idea how this has happened, but I suspect it has to do with the writer having unprecedented control.
Secondly: The books are a little disappointing. The movie paints a rich tapestry that appears to be just barely explored. I anticipated this being like the Lord of the Rings. The Tolkien books contained an astounding amount of information, from which the movies could include maybe half (often much less). The first two Harry Potter movies contain 90% of what is in the books, to the point I was surprised when anything was even slightly different. My usual rule is Watch the movie before you read the book because books are almost always interesting even if the movie has given something away. In the case of Harry Potter, I'm not how the book became so popular without the movie. The book leaves a lot to the reader's imagination, which of course for me is now tainted by the movies. I can't imagine what I would have 'seen' if I had read the books without seeing the movies, but it wouldn't have been what the movies show. Basically, I'm astounded that this stuff became so important that they had to make movies about it.
In summation: The books are ok, but the movies are fantastic. And yes, I'll still be reading all the books.